Cherry Hills Village Elementary: Using Observational Protocols for Instructional Rounds For Peer-to-Peer ObservationsSuccessful Strategies from Colorado Schools

“There are wonderful things happening right across the hall that I have no idea about because I’m in my own classroom.”

- Kelli Feltz, Second Grade Teacher, CHVE

C o l o r a d o L e g a c y F o u n d a t i o n! C h e r r y H i l l s Vi l l a g e E l e m e n t a r y : U s i n g O b s e r v a t i o n a l P r o t o c o l s

1 6 6 0 L i n c o l n S t r e e t , S u i t e 2 7 2 0 , D e n v e r, C o l o r a d o 8 0 2 6 4 • Te l e p h o n e : 3 0 3 - 7 3 6 - 6 4 7 7 • w w w. c o l e g a c y. o r g

© Copyright 2011 Colorado Legacy Foundation. All rights reserved.

Why Feature Cherry Hills Village Elementary?Cherry Hills Village Elementary School (CHVE) is one of 24 Colorado schools with the highest sustained rates of overall academic achievement and student growth over a three-year pe-riod. The school received a Colorado Legacy Foundation award for teacher leadership, which recognizes innovative leadership models that empower teachers to achieve consistent, sus-tained student achievement growth.

CHVE is part of Cherry Creek School District, which has been using observational protocols to facilitate teacher collaboration and improve instructional practices district-wide for the past two years. This work is a component of one of the district’s major improvement strate-gies (in the Cherry Creek District Performance Plan) that is aimed at increasing teachers’ un-derstanding and utilization of best practices in culturally responsive instruction.

Goal: Provide opportunities for all teachers to receive frequent, meaningful and useful feedback on their instruction.

“There are wonderful things happening right across the hall that I have no idea about because I’m in my own classroom.” Kelli Feltz, Second Grade Teacher, CHVE

Teachers in every school can likely relate to Mrs. Feltz’s dilemma. Teachers often feel iso-lated, with limited opportunity to learn from their peers except through informal communica-tions ‒ touching base in the hallway, sharing lesson plans, connecting at staff meetings or via email. But these strategies don’t effectively capitalize on the wealth of experience and knowl-edge among a school’s staff, or the diversity in strategies and techniques used by all teachers every day. A more structured, purposeful and formal process is needed in order to leverage and extend the excellent instructional strategies used in classrooms and to improve teaching and learning for all students.

Promising Practice: Using Observation Protocols for Instructional Rounds

Cherry Creek School District (CCSD) is addressing this challenge head on. The district has developed long and short observational protocols and implemented a process for peer-to-peer observation called “instructional rounds.” According to Dr. Elliott Asp, Assistant Superin-tendent in CCSD, the protocols and observations are the most effective strategies the district uses to build a culture focused on continuous improvement. “If you teach in CCSD, you have to know that you’re going to observe and learn from your peers and vice versa. We are fo-

C o l o r a d o L e g a c y F o u n d a t i o n! C h e r r y H i l l s Vi l l a g e E l e m e n t a r y : U s i n g O b s e r v a t i o n a l P r o t o c o l s

2

cused on providing opportunities for teachers to improve because no matter how good any-one is, you can always get better.”

The Cherry Creek protocols were adapted from instruments developed by Marzano Labs and were produced in collaboration with education consultant Dr. Robert Marzano. They are based on Dr. Marzano’s The Art and Science of Teaching. The protocols provide a district-wide common language of instruction and guide teachers’ observations of one another, reflection on their own instruction, and feedback for teachers being observed.

PROTOCOL: NINE DESIGN QUESTIONSPROTOCOL: NINE DESIGN QUESTIONS

1 What will I do to establish and communicate learning goals, track student progress, and cele-brate success for all students?

2 What will I do to help all students effectively interact with new knowledge?

3 What will I do to help all students practice and deepen their understanding of new knowl-edge?

4 What will I do to help all students generate and apply recently mastered knowledge in new and novel situations?

5 What will I do to engage students?

6 What will I do to establish or maintain classroom rules and procedures?

7 What will I do to recognize and acknowledge adherence and lack of adherence to rules and procedures?

8 What will I do to establish and maintain effective relationships with students?

9 What will I do to communicate high expectations for all students?

The protocols provide a guide for peer-to-peer observations, or instructional rounds. At their core, instructional rounds create opportunities for teachers to observe their peers and sub-sequently dialogue about the instructional methods observed. Instructional rounds are not intended to be evaluative. The value of the observations is the collaboration it creates for teachers, the opportunity for teachers to develop a common language and understanding of what high quality instruction looks like, and inspiring teachers to reflect on their own practice and improve.

There are obvious barriers as well as sensitivities to teachers observing each other: finding time away from the classroom, ensuring that time away is valuable and useful, and resistance and wariness about being observed by peers. But CCSD believes that peer-to-peer feedback on instructional practices is one of the most important strategies for improving student ! !

C o l o r a d o L e g a c y F o u n d a t i o n C h e r r y H i l l s Vi l l a g e E l e m e n t a r y : U s i n g O b s e r v a t i o n a l P r o t o c o l s

3

achievement. According to Asp, “Once teachers take part in using these protocols and implement instructional rounds and realize it isn’t a ‘gotcha’ or punitive strat-egy, they find it to be a very valuable use of their time.”

“We’re seeing teachers begin to reflect on their teaching. They’re starting to see this as a tool that helps them work on their in-dividual goals as well as school and district goals, rather than seeing it as one more thing to do. Teachers say things like ‘this protocol and observation process really helps me improve my relationship with students, or how to present new lessons or how to make my lessons more rigorous for all kids.’”

Implementing Instructional Rounds in CHVE

In Cherry Hills Village Elementary School, like all schools in CCSD, instructional rounds are a practice that builds upon on-going professional development in effec-tive instruction. CHVE’s professional learning communities spent several years studying Marzano’s The Art and Science of Teaching and establishing a common language around instruction. When instructional rounds were introduced, Pam Livingston, CHVE’s former Principal, and a small group of teacher leaders from the school went through a year of professional development provided by the district. During the year the teacher leaders practiced using the protocols by videotaping their own teaching, using the protocols to reflect, and observing other CHVE teachers. Subsequently, Mrs. Livingston and teacher leaders led Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) in a study of the observational proto-! !

C o l o r a d o L e g a c y F o u n d a t i o n C h e r r y H i l l s Vi l l a g e E l e m e n t a r y : U s i n g O b s e r v a t i o n a l P r o t o c o l s

4

C o o r d i n a t i n g a n d F i n d i n g Ti m e f o r I n s t r u c t i o n a l R o u n d s

In CCSD, it’s up to schools to find creative strategies to create time for instructional rounds.

• In many schools teachers cover each other’s classes.

• A full-day sub could free up three different teachers for a couple of hours to do observa-tions and debriefs. Four subs, strategically scheduled, can free up 12 teachers in three different rounds groups. Some schools used the sub only for observations so more could be scheduled, and then used planning time for teachers to receive feedback.

• Sometimes teachers offered to do rounds during planning periods. If a grade-level team has a common planning time, they’ve had one or two teachers volunteer to observe, while the remaining teammates plan.

• Some schools set up observations during planning time, and then debrief after school.

• Some schools designate a teacher, or some-one other than the principal, to coordinate instructional rounds.

cols. Through a staff self-reflection survey, Mrs. Livingston discovered the instructional strat-egy the teaching staff was least comfortable with was Design Question #4, “Applying New Content.” Therefore, the PLCs focused a great deal on bolstering these strategies before any observations took place.

CHVE grouped staff into four teams. Each team includes K-5 teachers as well as special edu-cation teachers. One team goes to three different classrooms to observe a 20 -30 minute lesson in each. Each teacher being observed is notified well in advance so it’s not a surprise visit. Each classroom observation is followed by discussion and reflection ‒ a debrief period of about 15 minutes. The team talks about instructional strategies observed and how they would work across different grade levels. Teachers are out of their classrooms for about 2.5 hours, and during that time a substitute teacher or teacher’s assistant covers their class. During a future PLC, the entire staff talks about the experience. The observational protocol guides the observations, the debrief, and personal reflection.

Kelli Feltz is one of CHVE’s teacher leaders that helped lead implementation. From her per-spective, the goal of instructional rounds is to use the observational protocol to identify teaching strategies and skills that teachers are using. “We’re looking for practices that teachers use all the time.” According to Mrs. Feltz, “There is great value in having a diverse team because we have different perspectives on instruction and we’re able to collaborate with special education teachers and figure out ways to adapt strategies to help all students.”

Mrs. Feltz believes that instructional rounds will help her be more aware of the instructional strategies she uses and those that she employs with less frequency or fidelity. “One of the many things we’re looking for are classroom management techniques. I found that some of my colleagues used a really efficient strategy to transition kids from tables to the floor. As a result of instructional rounds and having the opportunity to observe their practice, I save time in transition and have more time for instruction. Observing my colleagues has allowed me to fine tune everything I do.”

“I expect to see a change in student achievement and assessment results, because if teachers are getting better, then students are getting better.”

Important Resources That Support the Practice

The Art and Science of Teaching by Dr. Robert Marzano.

Note: Although CCSD uses the work of Dr. Marzano, Dr. Asp believes that districts with a dif-ferent instructional framework would find still find CCSD’s observations protocols useful.

Sharing Tools and Artifacts ‒ Helping All Colorado Schools

Observational Protocol Long Form! !

C o l o r a d o L e g a c y F o u n d a t i o n C h e r r y H i l l s Vi l l a g e E l e m e n t a r y : U s i n g O b s e r v a t i o n a l P r o t o c o l s

5

Observational Protocol Short Form

Instructions: Using the Observational Protocol

Videos of Cherry Creek teachers addressing the following questions:

• How is the Cherry Creek Observational Protocol being used in your school?

• Heritage Elementary School

• Peakview Elementary

• Sky Vista Middle School

• What has proven to be most successful for you, having been a participant in the protocol work?

• Cherry Hills Elementary School

• Sky Vista Middle School

• Through the course of this work, what have you discovered about the protocol and about your own instructional practice?

• Greenwood Elementary School

• Peakview Elementary School

• What would you say to someone who is apprehensive about getting involved in the Cherry Creek Observational Protocol work?

• Sky Vista Middle School

• Sky Vista Middle School

• What else would you like to say about this project?

• Cherokee Trail High School

• Greenwood Elementary School

• Sky Vista Middle School

AcknowledgmentsWritten by: Heather Chikoore, Colorado Legacy Foundation

Thank you to the staff of Cherry Hills Village Elementary School and Cherry Creek School Dis-trict for your willingness to open your school and classroom doors to CLF and to share your promising practices with schools and districts throughout the state.! !

C o l o r a d o L e g a c y F o u n d a t i o n C h e r r y H i l l s Vi l l a g e E l e m e n t a r y : U s i n g O b s e r v a t i o n a l P r o t o c o l s

6